


time, and rosemary, too

by Palebluedot



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Pining, Pre-Relationship, manifesting for eiselcross, spoilers through c2 e124, yk when your crush catches you doing war crimes.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29215404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palebluedot/pseuds/Palebluedot
Summary: The Nein return from Nicodranas smelling of pastries.
Relationships: Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast, Jester Lavorre & Essek Thelyss
Comments: 8
Kudos: 159





	time, and rosemary, too

The Nein return from Nicodranas smelling of pastries. It’s plain to see why; Jester is still laden down with bulging paper bags. They swing by her side as she bounds up to Essek, bump against each other behind his back as she throws her arms around his neck. He’s a little quicker to respond this time, but no more prepared for it. Barely, his fingertips catch her shoulders before she pulls away again. When she goes, she knocks him momentarily off his axis – such is her way. He adjusts his altitude, straightens his bearing, and regards the rest.

“Welcome back,” he says, not certain he’s been heard over the sound of Fjord and Veth bickering over something or other. Caduceus watches the proceedings with fond interest, but politely acknowledges him. Essek glances to Beau, and finds her staring unselfconscious daggers at him – not quite daggers, he corrects himself. Probes, tests. Agitating sticks jabbed at some mud-dwelling creature, to see how it moves. Regardless, Yasha stands behind her, her stance a bit shuffling, but unmistakably protective.

Then, as the whole colorful bunch of them weaves about him, from the corner of his eye, well. He knew he’d see him here among them. It still has the physicality of a shock, if an altogether different mental weight.

Caleb stands to the side, rather awkwardly cradling a bun from the bakery in both his hands. It is not fare that Essek recognizes, thick-crusted and herbal. There is a warmth to the fragrance that reaches him. He can smell it rather well, even from this distance. He glimpses that Caleb’s thumb has punctured it near the top, which offers some explanation, and a following host of questions. Was it idleness that drove his hand, or tension, rage, mundane hunger? Essek does not raise his eye to find out from his face. The questions are maddening, but an answer is unthinkable. Knowledge, he has learned of late, is not always a welcome friend.

“Oh! I almost forgot!” Jester’s voice rings. She rushes back up to Essek, and digs intently through one of her bags. “We got this for you!” And before he can resist, she presses something warm into his palm.

He holds it softly, a bird in his hands, liable to fly. He recognizes it, though he wouldn’t have a moment before. The smell sits heavy in his nose.

“Thank you, Jester,” he says, and finds her beaming when he looks.

“We weren’t sure what kind of thing you would like, so I got you one of what Caleb got!” she says, as though it needed pointing out. “I just thought, you know, you like all the same sorts of magic and stuff, so maybe you’d want to match! It’s _really_ good, he let me try a bite of his, I think you’ll really like it.”

She smiles so sweetly, even without trying, Essek marvels. All that intelligence and care, utterly unguarded. An uneasy thought. “That was very thoughtful,” he says through a dry mouth. He needn’t turn his head to know himself watched from the periphery, after all. Not from so intense a gaze.

“It may not be to your tastes.”

Essek starts a little. Caleb’s voice is rough and soft, but it cuts all the same.

When he is silent, Caleb continues, in his low and urgent way. “It is rather different than anything we encountered in the Dynasty. It will not be what you are used to. You may not care for it.”

If Essek felt eyes on him before, now he senses the training in of ears. Not honed in out of malice, but simple attention. A watchfulness that burrows in his throat. This is no cloak and dagger game of coded threats, he reminds himself. His words matter more, now, than they did when he was so embroiled. And he is already working from a borrowed chance.

Falteringly, he meets Caleb’s eyes with a quick, tight, quirk of his lips. Not quite a smile, but a token of one.

“Only one way to know, I suppose. I am no stranger to new experiments.” He breaks the crust with both his hands and pulls the bread in two.

**Author's Note:**

> THAT EPISODE HUH. i've had the word "time" ringing in my ears for the past hour or so, and couldn't resist the pun. simply SO excited to be absolutely insufferable now that the boy is back. 
> 
> Comments are love! ♥


End file.
